Trapped

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Because I live, you also will live (John 14:18-19).

A deadly earthquake killed thousands of people in Central America. In the midst of the confusion a father rushed to the school where his son had gone that morning and discovered that the building was flat as a pancake. Standing there looking at the wreckage, the father remembered a promise he had made to his son: "No matter what, I’ll always be there for you." Tears filled his eyes; it looked like a hopeless situation. Then he remembered that his son’s classroom was at the corner of the building, which meant there might have been some protection. He went there and started digging through the rubble. Other grieving parents came, but they all said, "It’s too late. They are dead." Even a police officer and a firefighter told him that he should go home. It was useless, they said. But the father continued digging for his son stone by stone. He dug for 8 hours, then 12, then 24, and then 36 hours. Finally in the 38th hour as he removed a boulder, he heard his son’s voice. He screamed his boy’s name, "ARMAND!" A small voice answered, "It’s me, Dad." Then the boy added, "I told the other kids not to worry. I told them that if you were alive you would save me, and if you saved me they’d be saved too. You kept your promise. You said, ‘No matter what, I’ll always be there for you.’"

We Christians are like little Armand. We live in a world that has been wrecked because of sin. The wreckage of that sin crushes us, suffocates us in the dark and makes us feel as if we are trapped with no way out.

But like Armand, we are not afraid. We do not give in to despair, because we know that our Lord Jesus has made us a promise: I will come to you. Because I live, you also will live. Jesus rose from the death that our sins had inflicted upon Him; He rose and ascended into heaven, and He is alive right now. And because He lives, He can guarantee us rescue from being trapped by this world’s fall. Because Jesus is alive, we can have complete confidence that He will come to where sin has trapped us in the dark and open the way for us to find light and life.

We should be like Armand in one other way. He assured the other children trapped with him that his father could be counted upon not only to save him, but all of them as well. Many people in your life feel trapped in the dark, but are in despair because they have no hope for rescue. Be an Armand to them; tell them that because Jesus lives, you know that you will be rescued, and that Jesus will move heaven and earth to rescue them from sin and death as well.